On Monday last the Commons devoted their time to Mr.
Henderson's motion on the subject of Ministers' interests in companies that contract with the Govern- ment, and to Lord Hugh Cecil's amendment. At the end of the debate there were some noisy interruptions of the Attorney-General, but, on the whole, the debate was not undignified. Mr. Henderson spoke mainly of Mr. Chamberlain's directorships, to which, of course, no Minister could really find time to give a thought. The Prime Minister spoke more generally of the difficulties of the matter, and Lord Hugh also kept upon a higher plane though delighting his friends with brilliant stings of wit which went home to the Labour Party. (Nothing so witty was said on either side as the mot which we remember in 1900, when Mr. Joseph Chamberlain was attacked over Kynochs' contracts in the South African War—" As the Empire expands, the Chamberlains contract.") Mr. Neville Chamberlain was entirely ex- onerated from insinuations that no one ventured to turn into charges of corruption, and the guiding principles for Ministers remain where they were.
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